Venezuelan illegal immigrant tackled by federal agents at New Hampshire courthouse after attempt to flee
A Venezuelan man in the United States illegally was tackled at a New Hampshire courthouse by federal agents earlier this year after he fled from their attempt to detain him quietly in an elevator.
Arnuel Marquez Colmenarez, 33, was taken into custody while he was heading to a court arraignment on charges for drunken driving, driving without a license and failing to provide information after an accident, according to The Associated Press via the Nashua Police Department.
Video from Feb. 20 that was released by the Nashua Circuit Court on Monday showed Colmenarez going through security at the courthouse and getting into an elevator with the federal agents and a few other people.
As others left the elevator, an agent can be seen touching Colmenarez lightly on the shoulder, then talking to him. The video does not include audio, but Colmenarez can be seen running out of the elevator after a few seconds.
Two agents chased him out of the elevator and threw him to the ground a few feet away, knocking down an older man who was walking with a cane in the process.
Court liaison officer for the Hudson Police Department, Jared Neff, said he was in the prosecutor's office when he heard something going on near the elevators and decided to go check it out.
"There were voices yelling 'Stop!' and then a loud 'bang' which sounded like people had fallen on the ground and were actively fighting and struggling," he wrote in an incident report, according to The AP.
Neff helped the agents restrain Colmenarez, who could be seen in the video resisting attempts to be handcuffed.
The older man who was knocked down remained lying on his back during the apprehension, and it took a minute or so for him to receive help, the video showed. It's unclear if he was injured.
The agents allegedly told Neff they had been ordered to detain illegal immigrants, and had tried to do so quietly in the elevator.
A bench warrant was issued for Colmenarez since he failed to show up for arraignment and the prosecutor over the case was not contacted by federal agents beforehand nor was aware of his arrest, according to The AP.
Colmenarez is being held at an ICE facility in Texas as of Monday, The AP reported after viewing an online database.
His arrest at the courthouse comes after President Donald Trump repealed a 2011 policy that had federal agents typically avoid making arrests at courthouses, schools, places of worship and hospitals.
Current policy allows for immigration arrests "in or near courthouses when they have credible information that leads them to believe the targeted alien(s) is or will be present," as long as state and local law doesn't prohibit it.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Fact Check: Doctored photo shows ICE agents arresting man wearing 'Latinos for Trump' T-shirt
Claim: A photo authentically shows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arresting a man wearing a "Latinos for Trump 2024" T-shirt. Rating: In June 2025, online users claimed a picture showed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arresting a man wearing a "Latinos for Trump 2024" T-shirt. On June 1, an X user posted (archived) the photo with a caption mocking the man's alleged vote of Trump, whose immigration policies supposedly led to his arrest. The user wrote, "Well that did not go well huh?" The post received over 500,000 views. (Image courtesy of @JamesTate121/X) Following that post, other users shared the same picture on Bluesky (archived), Facebook, iFunny (archived), Mastodon (archived), Threads and X (archived). However, an unknown user doctored the photo with the "Latinos for Trump 2024" logo. The same user altered the agents' uniforms to read "ICE," when the original picture showed "HSI" for Homeland Security Investigations. ICE and HSI both operate under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security. The Alamy and Getty Images websites both hosted the original, unedited photo for licensing. The genuine caption read, "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents arrested alleged immigration violators at Fresh Mark [in] Salem, [Ohio, on] June 19, 2018." The original picture confirmed no visible writing or logos appeared on the back of the detained man's T-shirt. ICE published the original photo (Image courtesy of Getty Images) As The Associated Press reported, based on its own survey of over 120,000 voters, Trump gained a larger share of both Black and Latino voters in 2024 than in the 2020 election, most notably among men under age 45. For further reading, Snopes compiled a collection of 20 fact checks involving U.S. immigration authorities. Brown, Matt, et al. "Young Black and Latino Men Say They Chose Trump Because of the Economy and Jobs. Here's How and Why." The Associated Press, 10 Nov. 2024, Catalini, Mike, and Rebecca Santana. "Just Days into the New Trump Administration, Worries Spike amid a Show of Force on Immigration." The Associated Press, 24 Jan. 2025, Chappell, Bill. "Homeland Security Secretary Orders ICE to Stop Mass Raids on Immigrants' Workplaces." Connecticut Public, 12 Oct. 2021, Santana, Rebecca. "Immigration Officers Are Operating with a New Sense of Mission. Now, 'Nobody Gets a Free Pass.'" The Associated Press, 28 Jan. 2025, "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agents Arrested Alleged Immigration Violators at Fresh Mark [in] Salem, [Ohio, on] June 19, 2018." Getty Images, ICE, 19 June 2018, Younge, Gary. "'They Want to Take Me Away': Immigrants under Attack as Trump Tries to Rally Republican Base." The Guardian, 23 Oct. 2018,
a day ago
More bodies of executed civil war-era prisoners uncovered under Greek city park
THESSALONIKI, Greece -- Another series of unmarked graves — this one containing 14 individuals from Greece's civil war era — have been dug up in a park in a suburb near the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, local officials said Saturday. As in the previous tight cluster of unmarked burial pits excavated earlier this year in Neapolis-Sykies, the bodies belong to prisoners who were held in a nearby Byzantine fortress. The prisoners, alleged communists and sympathizers, were executed between 1946 and 1953, according to historians. The Yedi Kule castle, also known by its Greek name Eptapyrgio ('seven towers') was a prison where communist sympathizers were tortured and executed during Greece's 1946-49 Civil War and immediately afterward. The burial pits were uncovered on the site of a municipal park undergoing renovation, including the installation of new benches. The graves were not far beneath the surface, Haris Charismiadis, the supervising engineer of the park project, told The Associated Press. The renovation project is not currently a priority for local mayor Simos Daniilidis. 'We insisted on continuing the digging for the graves,' he said. Charismiadis, who said most of the current batch of bodies were found during the past week, is certain there are more people buried nearby, including, probably, under the tarmac of streets adjacent to the park. An archaeologist is assisting in the digging. In contrast with the 33 bodies found earlier this year, which were lying side by side, the recently found bodies are jumbled, as if thrown randomly, and hastily, in a heap. Torsos and heads are separated. When Yedi Kule prisoners were executed, their families were often not notified and they didn't get to retrieve their bodies. Some found out about the fate of their loved ones from newspapers — one family happened upon the news while on the bus they had taken to the prison to bring their relative a fresh change of clothes.
San Francisco Chronicle
a day ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
More bodies of executed civil war-era prisoners uncovered under Greek city park
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Another series of unmarked graves — this one containing 14 individuals from Greece's civil war era — have been dug up in a park in a suburb near the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, local officials said Saturday. As in the previous tight cluster of unmarked burial pits excavated earlier this year in Neapolis-Sykies, the bodies belong to prisoners who were held in a nearby Byzantine fortress. The prisoners, alleged communists and sympathizers, were executed between 1946 and 1953, according to historians. The Yedi Kule castle, also known by its Greek name Eptapyrgio ('seven towers') was a prison where communist sympathizers were tortured and executed during Greece's 1946-49 Civil War and immediately afterward. The burial pits were uncovered on the site of a municipal park undergoing renovation, including the installation of new benches. The graves were not far beneath the surface, Haris Charismiadis, the supervising engineer of the park project, told The Associated Press. The renovation project is not currently a priority for local mayor Simos Daniilidis. 'We insisted on continuing the digging for the graves,' he said. Charismiadis, who said most of the current batch of bodies were found during the past week, is certain there are more people buried nearby, including, probably, under the tarmac of streets adjacent to the park. An archaeologist is assisting in the digging. In contrast with the 33 bodies found earlier this year, which were lying side by side, the recently found bodies are jumbled, as if thrown randomly, and hastily, in a heap. Torsos and heads are separated. When Yedi Kule prisoners were executed, their families were often not notified and they didn't get to retrieve their bodies. Some found out about the fate of their loved ones from newspapers — one family happened upon the news while on the bus they had taken to the prison to bring their relative a fresh change of clothes.
